Imaginative Service: Rx for Customer Gloom

What’s a museum store to do? It might be time your store was re-sensed, re-energized or re-themed. Besides, at a time when value-added has gotten way too pricey, maybe it is time to try value-unique. Focusing on imaginative service, not just good service, means re-examining everything about your customer’s service experience.

Re-Sense Your Museum Store

“People buy memories,” says Sandy Fisher, manager of the museum stores for The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. “Over half our store sales come from authentic North Carolina crafts — pottery, glass, jewelry — gloriously arranged by color. Plus, our patrons get a card educating them about the piece they purchased. It extends the memory of their museum experience.”

Re-sensing involves thinking of the store experience as a stimulator of the five senses. The wildly popular “Living in Space” exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History does not stop when you leave the exhibit hall. The museum store sells space food in backpack sized packages. And, to stimulate your wallet, there are samples to try. An antique and memorabilia shop in Memphis plays oldies; a shop specializing in silk flowers puts a small waterfall in the center of the shop; an upscale jewelry shop has employees wear formal evening attire.

What’s happening in all these pictures? Stores magnifying the power of the five senses to augment their customer’s service experience. When realtors suggest baking an apple pie before holding an open house, when cookie shops pipe their kitchen aroma onto the sidewalk, and when upscale retail stores put a pianist at a baby grand on the sales floor, they all are declaring the common sense of uncommon senses.

Take a close look at the “touch me” features of your museum store. Customers enjoy a tactile connection. What does your museum store sound like? Why not let those wild birds on display provide sound effects for the store? What do customers hear in the background when they call? Does the store entrance “welcome” in an obvious and positive way? Have a friend “shop” your store and count smiles. Sense out of the box!

Re-energize Your Museum Store

Customers are attracted to spirited people! And, today’s customers are frustrated with indifferent service – not bad service, just boring, comatose service. They witness service people sleepwalking through the workday.

Re-energize your museum store by making it a no-spirit-leech zone. They have just been uplifted, enriched and enlivened by their museum experience. Help that feeling continue after a stop in your store. Let employees know your customers expect a great attitude and so do you. Exhibit the attitude you want. Mickey Mouse never has a non-happy day, even if he stayed up late watching TV the night before or has to wear a hot costume in sizzling July.

Re-theme Your Museum Store

Theme is all about having a compelling story — a fantasy land commanded by a mouse (Disney theme parks), a trip to Treasure Island (Treasure Island Hotel in Las Vegas), or a stroll through the streets of Paris (Paris Hotel) or Venice (The Venetian). No relevant story in your store’s legacy? Create your own.

What if your museum store made a centerpiece out of unexpected speed, ultra-personalized service, a classy experience, a marketplace link to other similar resources, or the funniest place in town? The Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta has a giant dinosaur as the museum centerpiece. With their huge focus on education, the museum store experience becomes an extension of the museum experience. “We have a gazillion toy dinosaurs children play with in our store,” says Museum Store Manager Linda Gerber. “Obviously, toy dinosaurs are one of our biggest sellers. But once purchased it’s not just a toy anymore; it is a memory-maker teaching tool.”

Customers recall, return and refer others to those experiences that engage them emotionally and leave them with a positive memory. In an era of doom and gloom, creating a place of joy can help your museum store become the customer’s “oasis of choice.” And, imaginative service can take their breath away.

Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson are customer loyalty consultants and authors of “Take Their Breath Away: How Imaginative Service Creates Devoted Customers.” They can be reached through www.taketheirbreathaway.com.